States

Leisure

The Telegraph

Travel

Costiera Amalfi or Amalfi coastline has been on my travel bucket list for a while. Images of winding hill roads encircling a rugged coastline, villages lost high up in the mountains and pristine blue water. What is there not to love about this image? The Amalfi coastline has been a favourite summer spot for well-heeled Italians and the international jet set for many years.

When the sea asks, you give. Period. Even if it happens to be your breakfast. Joseph Conrad’s enchanting mistress can be demanding too when it is her turn; after all, she lets you frolic as you like in the shallow waters near the beach, lets the wave-top foam lick your toes, before the sand slips away underfoot in the surge back.

My friends at the US Consulate have been trying to send me on an exchange programme to the US of A for the longest time but just couldn’t come up with the right programme that would fit. Finally, last year, an elated Greg Pardo (former deputy director of the American Center in Calcutta) calls me from Delhi and says that he fended off many nominees and managed to get me on an International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP).

When you pack your bags for a weekend trip to Goa, your checklist of things to do probably includes taking a dip in the sea, long walks on the beaches, eating Goan specialities at a beach shack, replacing water with beer as the beverage of choice and sipping fancy cocktails. What if you could do all of that at one place, without having to step out of your resort? Might sound like a dream but it is totally possible at the Azaya Beach Resort Goa.

It takes almost half a day to get to Kanha National Park — India’s famous jungle located deep inside Madhya Pradesh — but if you’re a wildlife lover, the journey shouldn’t be an impediment. The best way to get there from Calcutta is to take a flight/ train to Nagpur and then hire a vehicle (or ask your resort to send one). The drive is around six hours long (265km). One can also land in Jabalpur and drive down, it’s shorter (165km), but the roads, we hear, are better on the Nagpur-Kanha route.

We were a group of six journalists from six parts of India — three strict vegetarians including one who’s the happiest when his plate has dal-chawal on it, one non-vegetarian whose meat bowl includes only chicken, one who eats everything that moves, and another (myself) who loves all kinds of meat but is allergic to shelled seafood. To curate a meal map across Singapore for such an odd mix for a five-day trip would be quite a task... or so we thought.

Lush green, rain-soaked and in a haze of petrichor, I arrived at the Karma Royal Haathi Mahal on a June afternoon. Located at Cavelossim in South Goa, this property is tucked away from the swarmed northern parts and is a mere seven minutes from the beach and an hour’s drive from Dabolim airport.

Travelling through Romania is a lot like learning to cook the country’s traditional dish Anghinare Umplute (stuffed artichoke). It brings conflicting questions to the mind regarding the main ingredient: Is it a flower from the East or a vegetable from the West? What are the scrumptious bits and how much must be left untouched?